The Beauty of Kobwin, Part 3

I should have added to the end of my last post that the family parents of the first family group are going to be coming to Kasana (our main center, where I live) for the Institute of Childcare and Family from January to May of next year. We will be classmates since I am also taking the Institute during that time. Now that I know them a bit, I am eagerly looking forward to this upcoming opportunity to grow in relationship with them!!  :)

Monday morning marked the beginning of our last full day in Kobwin, at least for this trip. The manager had announced at church that the students needed to come to the school at 7:30 on Monday morning to do a project with me. Unfortunately, not all of the day students were at church….so we mostly just had the students who live on site.

But other than that it went pretty well. It took a lot longer than we were expecting (three hours), partly because the students were having so much fun coloring and drawing after they had done the writing bit! Also because students didn’t all come right at 7:30, they kind of trickled in over the first couple hours. Thankfully we had enough papers and colored pencils to keep everyone occupied!

I had simply written a couple basic examples. Other than telling the children to put their name, age, class, prayer requests, and signature, I really didn’t give much instruction. Later that week, as I read through the kids’ requests, I was mostly impressed. Sure, I chuckled at a couple (“I want to be the next Obama”), but there were also some that showed the students’ positive character (“Please pray that I would have a forgiving heart”). There were also some that included bits of Spanish, since we recently had our first ever team from Mexico and they spent most of their trip at Kobwin.

Once the last student had finished, Constance took me on a tour of the property there. She was taking some pictures of the community outside for comparison. It was interesting to see a few houses and learn a bit more about Ugandan culture in that area. For example, there are lots of large gray rocks in that area, and the people there use them to dry potatoes and things like that as a method of preserving food.

{Side note – since Kobwin is in a different part of the country, the people are mostly of a different tribe and thus speak a different language. I kept wanting to use my small bits of Luganda, and then remembering that the people there may not understand it because they speak Ateso instead (or sometimes also)!}

By then it was only 11 or so, but already so so hot that we gave up on our walk, even though we had only gone part of the way around the property. That was one of the unfortunate parts about Kobwin….it is much hotter there than at Kasana, so activity becomes much less enticing pretty early in the day.

{Kasana will be warmer these next couple months than it has been, though, because we’re now entering one of the dry seasons. I got back towards the beginning of the rainy season, and there have been a few times where it has felt down right cold here at Kasana! But really that means it was “only” 60 degrees or so…..}

Later that afternoon I went and did a quick email check for the first time in five days, then played a couple games with some of the kids. First we tried doing dominoes, but we only had a double sixes set and we had about eight players. So it didn’t work too well. Then we played cards for a while, until a football {soccer} game started and most of the students wanted to join that {when thinking about Kobwin, it doesn’t seem right to call them “kids” or “children,” because so many of them are in their late teens or early twenties! So I end up calling them “students” instead, even in non-school contexts.}

My three young friends from Friday then wanted to take me up on top of the rocks right behind Constance’s house. A couple of the youngest staff kids decided to tag along, and my guides didn’t want them to come, saying “they’re going to cry!” I had been up on the rocks just a bit on Saturday, and so knew to watch out for 1) thorns and 2) cow paddies. But I was looking forward to being led up to the top, since I had just kind of wandered around. I figured I could help the little ones if needed.

Well, the wind started picking up…..sure sign of a storm blowing in. We tried to go up the way the boys knew, but the two youngest ones were scared…it involved climbing up onto one rock and then immediately scooting through a narrow space from another rock on top in order to get higher. I couldn’t quite figure out how to get up the rock, even though I was definitely the tallest in the group. {Wearing a skirt and flip flops is a convenient excuse, right?} The little girl proceeded to cry a bit, so I called everybody back and helped the little ones down.

We tried going up another way, but it was too overgrown to really get onto the top. The littlest boy cried somewhere along there too, so the guide’s prediction proved correct! We had seen that the sky was getting dark, though, and when we started feeling a few raindrops I said that we had to get down before it poured on us. So down we went, none the worse for the little adventure.

The storm took longer to really come in than I thought it would, but my word, it really did POUR when it came! So the temperature was quite a bit cooler in the evening than it had been in the late morning. There were a couple girls in Constance’s house when I got back, so we shut the windows (to keep the rain coming in) and then used solar battery lanterns (because there’s no power there) to see enough to play cards (since we couldn’t hear one another talk because of the rain pounding on the roof!). It was a fun day :)

Then that evening, we three muzungus (Lugandan term for white foreigners) went to the second family group for devotions and dinner. And this family mother fed us a small feast! She makes me chuckle even as I think back about it – she is definitely the mothering type!! She kept urging us “You eat! Be free! Drink your tea!” And she insisted on sending me away with some homemade peanut butter, the best I’ve ever had!

Both of the sets of family parents were just so welcoming and so ready to open their homes, hearts, and families to include us. It was a special time getting to know some of the special members of our extended spiritual family!!! They accepted me and loved me and encouraged me, even in a short few days. I was definitely blessed, and I look forward to seeing them again whether here at Kasana or on future trips to Kobwin!

The next day we left Kobwin by 6 a.m., and in Kampala I bid farewell to Constance and the others and headed to the mall to print pictures, then on to public to go home on my own. It all worked out, thankfully, and I was back home to Kasana by about 7 that evening. {Constance needed to take a young boy to Entebbe--south of Kampala--for a surgery. Keep him in your prayers, please! He has now had a second surgery, and is in a cast for a while.}

The Beauty of Kobwin, Part 2

Well, it’s nearly a week later and I’m finally getting around to writing more about Kobwin!

On Friday morning, I got started taking pictures of the students there for the prayer cards we were planning to have them do for sending to prayer supporters in the U.S. I was a bit unsure of myself at first, but the family parents (our staff members) welcomed me in and encouraged me “be free!” and to not be afraid.

Soon their young twin boys and one of the younger students from the family group were helping me by pulling in the students I hadn’t gotten pictures of, finding them on my list, and even copying what I told them to write as the description so I would know who was who later! I really appreciated those three young fellas helping make me feel more at home :)

Around lunch time, Constance and a couple of the staff members got busy mixing lemon juice and powdered sugar to make the typical Ugandan cake frosting. One of the ladies had amazingly baked the cakes on a sigeri (charcoal-burning small round stove) since ovens are not common household appliances. (As I think I mentioned in my previous post, there was a wedding coming up the next day!).

We had fun frosting the cakes, wrapping them in ribbon, and then trying to add more frosting since we had a lot of extra. The problem with the latter was that we didn’t go slowly, letting one layer of frosting harden before putting on the next layer. So it ran all over and we spent some time frantically trying to shore up the “dams” of the ribbons….and pretty nearly just ended up with a big mess! But it all worked out :)

After we had got that straightened out, I went down to the school to start helping prepare food for the wedding. We peeled matooke, sorted/winnowed pounded ground nuts (peanuts), and chopped up several cabbages. The first two were new experiences for me! The ladies also had some young men gather large rocks to build fire pits of sorts for cooking the food. By then it was dark, and so lack of electricity sent us all home.

The next morning, the day of the wedding, at least a couple of the ladies woke up at 2:30 a.m. to start preparing the meal for the wedding. By the time I got there around 3:30 or 4, there were about a dozen people working by flashlight, and five or six fires going under massive pots (I’m talking two to three feet in diameter!). At first most of them were butchering the meat (cow and chicken) that I think had been slaughtered the night before. I thankfully missed the slaughtering bit! But the rest about the wedding feast will need a blog post of its own.

By 7 or so most of us went home and showered to try and get the smoke smell off before getting dressed up for the wedding. The ceremony was scheduled to start around 9—and I think it did start pretty close to that. The first hour or so was taken up by the two processionals of groomsmen/groom and bridesmaids/bride. It is evidently the tradition at least in that part of Uganda for the processional to be very very slow. I guess it helps make sure people arrive before things really get started?

Anyway, we had the school’s end of year ceremony, complete with speeches, musical numbers, etc. The crowd steadily increased as time went on, and between every couple of pieces of the program the MC would again welcome those who were just arriving. That’s just part of the “African time” culture here…..(my friends’ youngest son slept in my lap for an hour).

Then we went straight into the wedding, including more singing and dancing. Vows and rings were exchanged, a culturally acceptable (though exuberant) hug took place instead of a Western-style kiss. Then Uncle Jonnes preached a short wedding message that even I as a single appreciated…about how 50-50 isn’t sufficient for a marriage…God calls a husband and wife to give 100% to one another as an example of how Christ held nothing back but gave 100% of Himself for us!

Finally, at 3:30 I think? It was time to serve the wedding meal. I was helping with that also….and as I said above that will be the subject of another blogpost. Quite a bit later, a threatening rainstorm blew in, putting an end to the wedding festivities. We enjoyed simple rice & beans for dinner, and I went to bed early!

Sunday was a very chill day, everyone just needed to recover from the wedding! Church that morning was an interesting experience. Lots of dancing and clapping from the worship leader…he had to have two handkerchiefs to try and keep up with the sweat of his exuberance! Also, here at Kasana, we do the service in English and it is translated into Luganda. But in Kobwin, the service is carried out in Ateso and then translated into English sentence by sentence. So it was my first time here to be understanding the translated sermon rather than as originally spoken.

In the afternoon I worked on sharpening three gallon bags of colored pencils for kids to use the next day on the prayer cards. Thankfully the three little musketeers, my friends from the day before, showed up and pitched in to help me with that!

That evening we attended devotions with the first family group at Kobwin, and then had dinner with the family parents. Oh my, such a feast she set before us! I really enjoyed getting to know them better and hear bits of their story! A couple girls from the family had helped the mom cook, so they ate with us as well.

Well, I am falling asleep here on Tuesday night as I try to type this…so I think I better call it quits and finish another evening!

A Jonah Day

It’s Thanksgiving morning as I begin to write this, and I am sitting in a friend’s car in Jinja, Uganda as we stop to pick up some things on our way to Kobwin.

Last night we stayed at a resort on the shore of Lake Victoria, not far from the source of the Nile River. Yesterday was rather challenging….but through it all I am remembering to focus on God’s goodness and faithfulness.

It started in the morning. We were leaving Kasana at 9, but I had to run up to the admin office before then. I wasn’t planning to bring the sponsorship laptop with me, and I couldn’t sign in to access that email remotely. So I wanted to set up an automatic vacation response so people emailing questions would know it would be a couple of days. But I couldn’t find it anywhere in Outlook.

Made it home and it was time to go. In the process of trying to finish things up, I forgot to close my windows (hopefully it doesn’t rain too hard while we’re gone) and I forgot to grab my sleeping blinders. Neither of which I realized until that night.

We made it into Kampala, I got a few things I needed at one of the malls, and we had a good conversation with our driver. He is one of New Hope’s grown sons, now with a wife and a new baby, and we really appreciate him!

{It’s now Friday morning in Kobwin! I didn’t want to write as we drove, because I wanted to observe the new regions of Uganda where I had not yet been!}

So on Wednesday for lunch we went to a restaurant I had been to a couple of times earlier this year. It’s in Entebbe, not far from Lake Victoria. Sitting there looking at the lake somehow felt so restful and just what my soul needed. I had delicious chicken lasagna for lunch (and dinner, thanks to a takeaway box!).

At the airport, we picked up a gal who had spent a year at Kasana and another at Kobwin. Then we really got on the road, back up through Kampala and then off towards Jinja. There was a good bit of traffic, plus tons of slow, big trucks. So the journey seemed long and a bit tense.

We arrived at the resort tired and hungry. Once we got a bit settled in our rooms, we went to the outdoor seating area for dinner. Thankfully Constance & Allison had called in to preorder their food, and I was just eating my leftovers…so we didn’t have to wait for that.

Within 10 minutes of being outside, I could tell the mosquitoes had found me and were having a feast. So I headed inside and counted seven quickly swelling lumps. :/ I had also found out there was no wifi at the resort, which was disappointing because I had been hoping to enjoy a Skype with my family.

I was pretty sore and tired, so I was looking forward to a hot shower Constance said they would have. Fought with the bathroom door a bit that wouldn’t lock easily and wouldn’t stay closed, then thought I heard someone trying to come into my room. I still don’t know what the latter was about, I was too nervous to come out and didn’t want to have to fight with the door again.

Got all ready for my shower, turned on the hot water, and it was cold. My hand ran into a spider web in the corner, and he ran away as I continued letting the water run hoping it would warm up. No such success……I gave up in frustration.

Let down the mosquito net (which had a small hole) and grabbed my tablet to read in bed for a little while. Fought with the confusing bedcovers….It took me a bit to figure out that instead of having a sheet and a blanket, two sheets had evidently been sewn together to make a sort of duvet (a word I learned in N.Ireland!) over the blanket.

This is when I realized I didn’t have my blinders, and the lovely porch light right outside my window would make it hard for me to sleep. Climbed out of bed and turned it off, and as I climbed back in something among the covers moved and all I could see at first was a tail.

“You’ve got to be kidding, please don’t let there be a snake in my bed!!!” was my first thought. Then I noticed a small foot near the root end of the tail and breathed a sigh of relief. It was “only” one of the common 5-6” skink lizards that I usually enjoy watching. But I was still definitely NOT amenable to him sharing a bed with me. He wanted to run away as well – so I untucked the mosquito net near where he was and he fell to the floor and scurried off.

At that point I curled up in bed and had a self-pity cry. It had all been a bit too many failed expectations and frustrations for one night, I guess. If I had been making the decision at that moment about going home for Christmas, I would have gone in a heartbeat. But the decision to stay had thankfully been made the week before on a better day, in a more reasonable frame of mind!

I finished the chapter on Friendship that I had been reading in C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, and then I turned to my current relaxation reading: Anne of Avonlea. The title of the next chapter was “A Jonah Day,” about a day when teacher Anne Shirley felt like a failure.

A toothache colored her day all dark, and she was irritated and harsh with her pupils. On top of that, assuming that a package contained a banned nut cake, she told the offending student to drop it in the fire….and since the package was actually fireworks it created no small sensation! Then her trouble-maker student put a mouse in her desk, and she actually whipped him for it….something she had said she would never do.

Wow did I ever identify with her that evening! It may not seem like God would typically use a fluffy fiction book to encourage a frustrated, somewhat weepy daughter…..but He did just that :)

“Jonah days come to everybody,” as Marilla reminded Anne, and “This day’s done and there’s a new one coming tomorrow with no mistakes {and no frustrations} in it yet.”

And so yesterday (Thanksgiving) my attitude and thus my day were very much better! Thanks to God’s unending faithfulness and graciousness even in those times when I get so frustrated when things don’t go my way.

On Thanksgiving, I had the privilege of worshipping God as I watched His lovely sunrise over Lake Victoria. I took a shower that, while still not hot was not as cold as it might have been. We arrived in the beautiful Kobwin safely. I was reunited to some dear friends and greeted warmly. We had a delicious dinner. And I had no problem with cell phone signal to call my family for a bit before I went to bed.

Through ALL of it—both a Jonah day and Thanksgiving—God is good :)

I'm Back

As I write this on Saturday night, almost two days have passed since I arrived back on Ugandan soil. A little over 24 hours ago, I arrived back in Kasana, which even after being here only five short months gained the place in my heart of a third home after Dallas (where I grew up and where my parents are) and Siloam Springs (my college home town).

I am so so glad to be back! I can’t even tell you what a blessing it is to be back in this place. And I am so grateful to each and every person who has enabled me to return here through their encouragement and support!

What “I’m back” means in daily life – the positives and the challenges.

It means I get to live with Deborah, a lady I knew some from my last time here, and two other ladies. Today I was able to visit with Florence and get to know her – she also kindly made me tea and helped me “lay” my bed! {And made me breakfast this morning!}

It means that power has been mostly off during the days. (This is because the power lines are being serviced to hopefully make them better! I actually saw one of the workers up a pole stringing some wire.) And in the house where I now live, we only have three bulbs that are solar power (bathroom, hallway, sitting room, and those are spotty) and no sockets.

It means that the past couple days I got to catch up with Aunt Jill, and this morning I got to be with Worcester family again for a couple hours! It was so good to see them all, and they welcomed me back warmly J

It means that I walked into a completely bare room. Tonight will actually be my first night to sleep in my room, because the bed I’m borrowing for now was just moved over this afternoon! But it also means a western toilet in the bathroom! :D

It means being able to walk over to the Institute, my home last time, to see Betty and Harriet – two of my favorite ladies! I love being able to drop in on friends using just my own two feet to get there. This community aspect is one of the many reasons I wanted to return!

It means a return to the dust and the bugs….Today I had started unpacking and sorting my stuff to reorganize it….and my feet were filthy from my bedroom floor. So I swept (with our two-foot broom made of wispy plants/twigs) and mopped (which meant a bucket of water and laundry soap + an item of clothing that has been retired from wearing and relegated to the rag pile).

It means that I awoke the past two mornings to a plethora of beautiful bird songs out my window. :D I have so loved getting to see the beautiful birds here again, especially the cute little finchy birds I so fell in love with last time! (Red-cheeked Cordon Blues and Pin-tailed Whydahs)

It means showering evidently requires making a choice between clean water fetched from the water tower (as a cup/basin shower) OR running water (that comes from our house’s rainwater collection held in a cistern, and so is considered dirty….and will run out during dry season!). Neither of which are hot, unless the power is on to heat the water we fetch from the tower, OR unless the sun has warmed our tank enough that our running water is somewhat warm.

It means I will get to know Ugandan culture (and hopefully Luganda!) much more thoroughly from immersion in it by living with my housemates.

It means I have yet to be on Internet since leaving the guesthouse in Entebbe on Friday morning (I haven’t succeeded in getting Internet from my new house yet, and haven’t tried going closer to the main source to connect)

It means that tomorrow morning I get to worship once again with my Kasana family!

It means that I am here following God’s call and hopefully serving His purposes.

It means that soon I get to start helping Aunt Jill with her work in the sponsorship office!

And so, despite the challenges, the cultural uncertainties, the minor inconveniences, I am excited and so very blessed to be here!

{As I mentioned at the beginning, most of this was written last night. This morning, as I opened my windows, I looked out at the greenery and the flowers, and listened to the birds, and just couldn’t help leaning against the windowsill and thanking God for bringing me back! Worshipping with my Ugandan brothers and sisters this morning was also such a blessing!!! J}

The Institute Kids

Four months ago, I arrived here at Kasana….and shortly thereafter the other people who would be going through the Institute began to arrive as well. They live in what I affectionately call the “Institute village,” and we share all of our meals together. There are others who have already been on staff here at Kasana and who live in other areas of the compound…sadly I haven’t gotten to know them as well.

Our Institute village consists of five bandas (round huts) and a duplex down the hill, plus a kitchen and the dining hall/classroom. The residents are as follows: three single guys, one single gal (my roomie!), one young married couple, a couple and their daughter from Liberia, two Ugandan couples with children, and a new missionary family. There’s also a gentleman who has a family back in Kampala…he lives in one of the family groups but comes to eat meals with us.

I’ve been writing the rest of this post in my head for a while, and am finally sitting down to actually do it. I wanted to talk about the five African kids who have stolen their way into my heart these past weeks. When I leave, I’m going to miss everyone I’ve met here a lot….but especially these kids. {Here at Kasana, “Auntie” is used as a prefix before women’s names as a sign of respect}

Those first few weeks the kids were understandably shy. But now, looking back…it makes me chuckle inside. Because now they are anything but shy!!! Going to school here where English is the common language has helped that too—now they are actually confident enough to speak in whole sentences. J So I dedicate this post to these kids….and I pray God’s blessing on their life journeys.

There is the set of three siblings (a girl and two boys) who came with their parents from NHU’s other location. They have an older sister, but she stayed home for the sake of schooling. The daughter who is here helps a lot to take care of the littlest fella, and she still tends to be reserved. But there have been several times recently when I’ve seen her beautiful face light up with joy and excitement, and just last night she was teaching me how to say “moon” and “stars” in her mother language J

When I got back from the Institute break of four days, she and a classmate were just getting back from a day at school. She ran up to give me a big hug and the traditional Ugandan greeting to one who returns from a journey: “Auntie!! Welcome back!” Adding on, “this is my friend who is in my class!” I think that might have been the first time I heard her speak two whole sentences in English…

The older of the two boys was missing his two front teeth when I first met him. Now they are mostly grown in. The whole time, he’s had the most adorable grin. A few weeks back I taught several of the kids how to play “Go Fish,” and now this fella’s favorite question is “Auntie, we play the cards??” After I started working in the afternoons, my roommate told me he kept coming to our hut asking to play cards with me when I was gone.

He’s also our most frequent meal bell ringer. And he can play the djembe drum with better rhythm than I can! I tell you what, these kids just have rhythm in their blood! I love how concentrated he is when he does it, his mouth partly agape…his head usually tilted to one side J

Their little brother has me wound around his little finger. Man, those first couple weeks he was so whiny and so withdrawn….but now! Well, now he’s like the baby of a great big family J And I think I’m probably his favorite auntie… :D I don’t even remember how it started…but he taught me how to give a piggy back ride African style. The little kids here know how to hang on tight! After our meals, he almost always runs up behind me and grabs onto my skirt and we go through a whole routine of piggy back riding traditions that have developed over the past weeks. And even though he’s not far out of the toddler stage, he is perfectly capable of feeding himself (though it does make something of a mess) and washing his hands regularly (though he does need lifting to be able to reach the sink!). His name is perfect for him, because his laugh is probably the cutest I have ever heard.

He’s also started talking while here, kind of all of a sudden one week in the past month and a half or so. And now he talks up a STORM! On mornings when he’s in a good mood (about 50/50), I can tell it’s breakfast time when I hear his adorable little voice singing “happy birthday to yoooou, happy birthday to yooooou.” When we pray, his “AMEN!” is usually the loudest (and occasionally a wee bit premature…). “How are yooou? I’m FINE!” is another favorite, especially at breakfast. And when I have him on my back and go sit down in one of the cushioned chairs (to signal that I’m worn out for the day), he says (with the biggest grin on his face) what he’s evidently heard me say a few times: “I am tIReddd.” He’s also taught me some of his language! Akipi is water, Iya is again, and Inya is there (the last two I had to have his mother explain to me because he kept saying them during our piggy back riding times!)

Two other girls round out the little group. Both are between the ages of the two boys in the three-some

The older one is something else. She’s probably the most spunky, out-going little kid I have ever seen! She’s just a firecracker, always on the go, always in motion…sometimes to the point of minor calamities (I have no idea how many cups she’s spilled or pieces of silverware she’s dropped here…. ;-). My first clear memory of her is the day the first week when I was the blind man in Blind Man’s Bluff and she opened the closed door and ran into a stranger’s house, grabbed my hand, and tried to lead me to the kids I was trying to tag. That’s just how this little gal operates.

She definitely acts like she’s a little princess and certainly isn’t afraid to make her wants and desires known…and expects them to be met! And her high energy level can be hard to keep up with sometimes. But she is also definitely a blessing, with her joyfulness and her vivacity. The only times I’ve seen her close to “calm” is when she’s just gotten up from a nap. That’s the one occasion when she’s sporting a gloomy face and not running around laughing and chattering away. I love her facial expressions too…I can definitely see her dad in her face and in her voice J

The other little girl was the second most reserved of the group. I met her right after she and her parents got here, and she was hiding behind the door. I watched her interact with the friends from home who had brought her family down, and I knew it would take some time before I was able to interact with her that way. Sometime in the first couple weeks I went over and sat talking to her parents for a little while…and that was the first time I heard her speak a whole sentence…but in her native tongue. But just like all the others, she has since blossomed into quite the cheerful little lark. Quite often, she’ll be singing at the top of her voice rather early in the morning (good thing I’m an early riser!).

She and her parents are my closest neighbors, and I love all the little exchanges we have. Like her brushing her teeth outside and showing me how she can make the water squirt out of her mouth. Like her announcing to me “I am washing!” in her sweet little accent when she is doing her laundry (by hand, of course). Like just today her hollering from outside of my hut: “Auntie Esther!” “yes?” “Hi!” But boy, this little lady has some shrill vocal cords! If you tickle her or startle her (both of which happen to most of these five kids on a pretty regular basis…), you better be prepared to have a loud scream split your ears! In the past couple weeks she’s really attached to me, running up whenever she sees me and practically jumping into my arms. The funniest thing to me is how on nights like last night, when the temperature is maybe 60 degrees, she walks around wearing a coat/jacket lined with cozy warm fluff. Weather is certainly relative!

So yep, that’s the description of my five little “nieces and nephews” here. I’m so thankful that they have good families and parents who love them and care about them (including coming to the Institute partly to learn about parenting their kids)! It’s a good thing they do….because if they didn’t…….well, it would be a lot harder to leave them behind. It will be sad anyway, but I’m thankful to know I leave them in the most able hands of God and the good hands of their parents.

What a Lovely Easter :)

Here in Uganda, Easter weekend is a big deal. And I don’t think it’s just because I’m in a Christian organization/community – I’m pretty sure I heard people talking about how there are many people who travel on this weekend.

Both the Institute class and the NHU admin office had Friday and today off. Last time we had a four-day weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to go out to an island on Lake Victoria for a little vacation. Last month as I thought about the Easter break, I knew there were a couple other places I’d like to go visit…….but at the same time I just felt like I wanted to celebrate Easter here at Kasana, in the place that has become a new home and with the people who have taken me in as part of their family.

And boy am I glad I decided to stay – because this weekend (especially yesterday) has been such an amazing blessing.

Friday morning I did laundry and spent some time continuing the Bible study/reading I’ve been working my way through (fairly slowly, I must admit…) this year. I think I may have also spent some time reading either a devotional by C.S. Lewis or one by Anne Graham Lotz.

Mid-afternoon I headed over to the church for the Good Friday service there. Uncle Jonnes talked for a while about Jesus’ humility at not answering His accusers, and about how we should do likewise rather than allowing ourselves to be imprisoned by anger and bitterness. Then we watched the last 30 minutes or so of the Jesus Film, from Jesus’ time in Jericho (healing the blind man and discipling Zacchaeus) through His ascension.

I’ve watched the Jesus Film before….but not like this. Because there are many in the congregation who come from the surrounding area and may or may not speak English very well, we watched the Jesus Film in Lugandan. (For the same reason, Uncle Jonnes’ teaching and each week’s church service are translated into Lugandan by an interpreter. So there’s kind of two speakers every week J) Having seen the movie before, and being pretty familiar with the story, I was able to follow what was being said for the most part. But I certainly noticed things I might not have noticed otherwise (I might write more about those another time).

I also enjoyed hearing the people in the church with me interacting with the movie as we watched it. The laughter when Jesus bested the religious leaders trying to trap Him. The applause when Jesus reappeared alive. The murmurs of many repeating the prayer at the end. And then during dinner, the conversation with one of the couples about how all representations of Jesus look the same—how do we know what He looked like?

Saturday I must admit I didn’t spend my time as productively. I took advantage of a “second Saturday” by doing what I wanted to do – reading about cute animal stories and just amusing myself (choosing not to think, if you look at the etymology of “amusement”). I also enjoyed the fan thanks to the power being on most of the day!

After a trip to the market and some dinner, I heated water for a “shower,” thanks to power still being on! But then it went off, so I showered by star-light and lantern-light. My roomie had turned our banda into a nail salon again, with four ladies painting nails by candlelight. Before I joined in, I couldn’t help but go out and stare at the stars. That’s the best part about the power going out at night. The stars are so amazingly beautiful here, but when power is on it’s still harder to see them. So I had to take advantage of the darker sky thanks to moonless-ness and powerless-ness.

After we had finished decorating fingers and toes for Easter, we just chatted and/or sang worship songs (and danced to them some J). Of course then power came back on ;-)  Called my parents for a while and had a good chat, then fell asleep before 11.

Sunday morning the roomie was making pancakes for our Institute village breakfast, so I pitched in. They were so yummy. J Then she handed out some gifts to the families we live near, thanks to her church back home and her friend who came to visit. Seeing the joy of the children and the parents at receiving even “simple” gifts such as Bibles and dresses made my heart so happy. J

When we walked the short distance to the church at 10, I was surprised by how many people were already there! Usually the 10:00 start time finds the church only half full, and it slowly fills up. But for Easter, there were many more people there on time! And what a morning it was J I’ve never been to a more joyful Easter morning service.

Ugandans usually worship with more vocal/physical exuberance than my home church, and yesterday they were even more excited and celebrating even more loudly than normal. It was so fun to watch and to take part in. Uncle Jonnes was the preacher for the morning, and his message focused on the fact that Christ’s death has freed us from our bondage to sin! Always such a good reminder!

After a delicious Liberian lunch (preparation led by a Liberian here to go through the Institute) and some dinner prep work, I blogged for a while and enjoyed listening to the afternoon’s rain shower. Later in the evening I went over to my family group for dinner.

While we were waiting for it to be finished cooking, two of the Worcester sons and daughters taught me to play “Ludo” (I think?). It’s very similar to Sorry, but with a couple different rules. It was so fun laughing with them.

The daughter taking her turn to cook did an amazing job! The beef and rice tasted so great. J And even though it was a simple meal by most standards, it was special compared to their normal daily menu of posho and beans (I need to do a food post sometime….).

I am so thankful for my Worcester family – I felt so blessed to be included in their evening. The four girls and the parents have been so sweet and welcoming toward me whenever I have gone to visit. And the six young boys are fun to watch as they run around and play together.

Today they did not have school either – so I went over on the bright and early side to help them work in the garden. We spent a couple hours planting white sweet potato clippings in the furrowed mounds of dirt. My first row took me more than an hour, but the second row took less than an hour. I came back dirty and tired, but again blessed and thankful to have a family here who takes joy in having me involved even in simple daily things.

And that’s the story of my weekend and why I’m so glad I stayed here at “home” rather than travelling to some other place. I am so very blessed J

Thanking God.....

.....for sleeplessness since 2 a.m.? (it's 5:30 in the morning here as I write this) Yes, I actually am!

Why in the world??? It's simple: Although this is the third or fourth time I've faced a similarly sleepless night here, this time was different. {My ongoing digestive issues here are partly to blame for the sleeplessness...as is ongoing stress/uncertainty...and all of the above are, I think, magnified at least some by the medicine I've been taking for malaria prevention.....}

This time, I didn't spend the time (trying to go back to sleep) on worrying and fretting about my problems, and then tacking on a little begging prayer for God to make things go my way. That's pretty much what I've done before, and it hasn't solved anything. While I know God cares about what I'm going through, and He certainly tells us to come to Him with our requests, I can now recognize that my heart and attitude have been very selfish and ego-centric the past weeks and months. Even when I came here wanting to help others and serve God...

And He's been convicting me and calling me out on some things this past week. And yes, I'm facing uncertainty yet again....but maybe I'm finally learning to take more baby steps towards deeper faith. Thanks be to God, my response this time has been better than it often has in the past--and I've taken the confusion to God more quickly.

Because of His continued work in my heart (which I am so incredibly thankful for), this morning--when I woke up at 2 and had to scurry right over to the pit latrine a couple yards from my hut--I didn't put on a pity party like I did the other night this happened. Instead I thanked God for His goodness and asked Him to be glorified, even in this--even when it's not fun or easy. And I don't share this because I'm some great person to have done this. No, that was all God and not very much of me.

And as I lay tossing in bed the next two hours, failing to fall back asleep, I invested that time. I invested it in prayer. First in worshiping God and reorienting myself to find satisfaction in Him alone; and then in praying for the people in my "Institute family" (there's 20+ people going through the Institute here at New Hope right now), other people/situations here at Kasana, and my friends/family all around the world.

It was a sweet, sweet time. Yes, sleep would have been nice.... (I may still go try to catch a nap before breakfast...) But I was able to put into practice what God's been teaching & calling me to. And I'm thankful that He led me heart to Him during that time.

a "Crazy" Fun Afternoon

After lunch I was tired from a busy morning of organizing/sorting paperwork in the admin office. I was sitting on the couch reading when the thunder started and I guess the clouds must have rolled in, because it started getting darker. I flipped the curtains of the three living room windows up over the strings that they hang from.

I was hungry, so I ate a couple little sweet bananas. It was starting to rain a little, but I walked the 10ish yards to go wash my hands at the sink in the dining room. A couple kids were in there, and as I was coming out they followed me, dancing around in a funny way. I knew what they wanted: several weeks ago when it first rained and I was here I couldn’t help but sing in the rain. The kids expected a repeat performance.

So we all got a little wet as we (mostly I) belted out the lines to “Singing in the Rain,” thanks to Andrea’s teaching at Kids’ Club in Northern Ireland this summer. Complete with hand motions and tongues out at the end, of course. A couple new girls came along and stared at me like I was crazy. Well, I was crazy….so they had reason to do so I guess ;) After we had sung through the song once, I retreated to my banda.

The rain was coming down a bit harder now, and so the rain was coming in through our screen-only windows. I pulled the curtains back down, but the wind was blowing hard and the rain seemed to be coming in sideways. So I braved the rain (intensified because I had to go right in the places where the runoff comes down the slanted roof) to go around and close the outside shutters.

I got back inside and was about to get warm and dry, then realized there was one more thing I needed to do first. So I quickly walked the 10 or so yards in the opposite direction (through the pouring harder rain) to the pit latrine. While I was in there, it almost sounded like hail on the metal roof!!! When I got back, I seriously wished I had put my towel by the door. I literally had water dripping off my hair, glasses, clothes, etc.

To top it off, power was out. With the shutters closed, the banda was pretty dark. Thankfully my 12-LED lantern was within pretty easy finding distance on the table. So I grabbed my towel and dried off, then got into nice cozy dry clothes (sweatpants & a hoodie!). Wrung out the clothes I had been wearing, then flopped onto my bed and read by lantern-light for a while. The rain poured hard, and eventually let up. The birds started singing again!

So I decided to open up the shutters to get some light into the otherwise quite dark room. While I was outside, the kids came out of taking shelter wherever they could find it. They ran over, excited to see me and wanting to play. Three of the younger Institute kids begged to be held, and again we sang the song (even though now it wasn’t raining). They also discovered that my hoodie made a fun "toy," and soon I found they thought that having my face entirely covered with only a small hole for my mouth made a great game!

Then they asked to play “Go Fish,” so I told them to wait while I cleaned off my couch, etc. Which they did wait very patiently, I was so proud of them! :D So we had me and four Ugandan kids ages 10-4 (well, one is Liberian) playing “Go Fish.” We’ve played it a few times before, so they’ve mostly gotten the hang of it. They do still often think that a 6 should be able to be paired with a 9 though, and sometimes they ask for a card that has already been played on the table. But we make it work :)

We played several games, giving each of the kids a turn to “share” as one girl says (she means deal). A couple times this same gal, who is pretty high-octane, was literally bouncing up and down on our couch. I could hear it creaking….I’ve kind of been wondering if it might be on the way to breaking….so I asked her not to bounce on it. {I was also starting to get overwhelmed by trying to keep game play orderly and didn’t need that distraction…….} So I said I must need to tell her to go run around the hut a few times while I shuffled the cards. Which she and the other kids proceeded to do, lol ;) We had to repeat the process a little later.

I could feel exhaustion setting in, so announced that we would do one last game. The kids were very good sports about going outside to play something else after that game. I sank back down onto the couch and sat there for a moment, feeling so so tired. Keeping four kids entertained for an hour…especially while trying to maintain the rules of a card game!...can be pretty tiring. But so much fun, and so very worth it :)

They are dear, sweet kids…even when I do have to fight against my perfectionistic nature to keep it from making me too annoyed with them when they don’t quite do things the “right” way and I’m tempted to lose my patience…….  But their love and friendliness and joy and laughter make it all so so so worth it :D

Spring Break Edition of YKYLiCUW

A continuation of the previous post, specifically about this past weekend's adventures!

~~The rainy weather makes puddles in the capital's street that are a deep orange color.

~~You are not a fan of taxi parks. Especially when, as in this case, it's just hundreds of taxi vans parked closely together and bumper to bumper....there's barely space to walk between! Plus the continuing rain doesn't help.

~~A couple boxes of chicks and at least one rooster accompany you on the boat ride.

~~Said boat ride takes nearly four hours!

~~You are annoyed by said rain, (and very thankful that the boat has a tarp over it!) until the sun begins to break through the clouds and you get to see a rainbow!!!

~~A short drive from the island jetty brings you to the small beach hotel where you will spend the night.

~~You eat dinner and go to bed listening to the crash of the waves on the lake shore.

~~But before you go to bed, you take your first running water shower in 10 weeks!! And with hot water too!! You’re surprised at how much water you get in your eyes….but maybe that was just from this particular shower head.

~~Trying to figure out a bathroom door that doesn’t want to stay shut, how to make a round mosquito net work with a four-postered bed, and overly-squishy pillows make you miss your banda bed back “home.”

~~You awake to take a long birding walk along the shore, and love every moment.

~~A few steps away from the sandy beach, and you find yourself in thick trees.

~~You sit on a bench swing back at the hotel’s beach doing nothing except listening to the waves, watching the birds, and thinking about how you could do this always…..but life doesn’t work like that… :/

~~One of the hotel staff comes and talks to you for a while, and you learn more about Ugandan culture. Including the fact that this gal thought she would never be of a high enough “level” to have a conversation with a muzungu….

~~There’s a super playful (half-grown) puppy running around the grounds that you quickly nickname “Floppy” because of his over-sized ears ;-)

~~As you eat lunch, you watch a large-ish lizard (I think he must have been nearly two feet, including the tail!) eat his lunch….I think a dragon fly?...on a nearby walkway.

~~You take tons of photos and videos……mostly of birds, I must admit ;)

~~You’re fixing to go sit on another bench to journal, when you suddenly see a monkey! And later, you realize there is a whole troop of monkeys in the woods very nearby…..probably close to a dozen!

~~As you watch the monkeys groom one another and pick food off the trees, it seems so very familiar. You’ve seen it before….in nature movies. Then you remember that this isn’t a nature movie, that you’re standing there watching live, wild monkeys in person. Wow!

~~You try to use the Internet to just check email and Facebook (yes, I’m an addict….) but it’s too slow and you give up.

~~You eat fish for dinner….fish that in the morning had been swimming around in the lake! Thanks to the fishing skills of the young couple who knew about this beautiful island and let you tag along.

~~The next morning, you get a bike and enjoy a long ride….pushing it up the hill, riding through the town, and out to a secluded spot overlooking part of the island coast. You’re thankful to be wearing capris for all that rather than a skirt!

~~During your ride, everyone from little kids to older folks is excited to see you. The little kids yell “hi!” and “bye!” and it seems to make their day when you say hi back. And the older ones holler “muzungu, what are you doing??” or “where are you going?”….to which you don’t answer, because the one is obvious and the other you don’t know for sure…

~~You spend the next three hours sitting in one place, meditating on God’s Word and worshipping Him. It is a beautiful time, and reminds you of times you’ve done the same in other places around the world. You are thankful that God is the same always and everywhere!!! (for more on this, check out the post on my other blog)

~~When you ride back down the steep hill you came up, you don’t pedal from the time you leave the town to the time you’re on the hotel road. Instead, you’re squeezing the brakes almost non-stop. You’re thankful they’re in good working condition!!!

~~You enjoy playing games with the folks you came with, and wading in the lake, and just relaxing and recharging J

~~A couple times, African guys come over and try to strike up a conversation. You’re not interested, so you keep responses short.

~~You hope to take another last hot shower……..but the hot water does not come out. After dinner you try again, take half of a cold shower and then the hot water comes!

~~Your room’s trash can displays the results of your “drinking addiction” – it is FULL of WATER bottles! ;-) Since tap water is not safe to drink, you must buy bottled water from the hotel restaurant. Every time you go you ask for at least one bottle….sometimes three…..

~~You wake up at 2 a.m. from a dream of going for a walk with one of your best college friends, wishing that you really could. You listen to the rain that is pouring down, and go back to sleep…..to have a very odd dream, probably thanks to the malaria med side effects :P

~~Morning comes, and with it the end of your time on the beautiful island. You hope you’ll be back.

~~The boat ride back is super choppy. You grab the bench in front of you and close your eyes often for the middle hour of the ride. Thankfully the motion sickness doesn’t fully make its way to the point of nausea.

~~You distract yourself by watching the antics of the full-grown chickens trying to escape the handmade rough, wooden crates they’re being transported in.

~~A little over three hours later, you’re very glad to be back on solid ground.

~~Another three hours later, you arrive back at your banda. One of the Institute girls has just gotten back from her school day and greets you with an excited “Auntie!!!” and an enthusiastic hug.

~~Everyone is glad to see you again, and after dinner the wee two-year-old is begging for a piggy back ride, as always. It’s good to be home J

You Know You’re Living in Central Uganda When…..

I’ll probably add to this as I go, but here are some fun tidbits about life here :) The bottom few are from a status I posted on Facebook nearly a month ago. All of these are from my personal experience, and are not meant to make any blanket statement about Ugandan/African culture. I’ll try to be sure these are fair & balanced ;-)

~~You’ve gone through a can of DOOM in each of the two months you’ve been here. The first was mostly on roaches, this second has been mostly on ants…..
~~You get to hear it easily when your neighbors are singing praise & worship in the evening—and be encouraged by it!
~~Seeing lizards of at least four different types is a nearly daily occurrence! And tons of new bird species, all beautiful :D And bats, sometimes even during the daytime.
~~You witness thousands of ants “migrating” (at least moving houses), and notice how many different sizes & types there are! {I got a video of it – I’ll have to try to post it so y’all can see. Pretty fascinating, but I’m kind of scared I’m going to dream of ants tonight….}
~~Rain suddenly becomes a whole lot more important than it ever did in the States! {See this blog post by the family I’m here with. I’ve got one rolling around in my head too, but it has yet to be composed.}
~~You’re happy when laundry “only” takes two solid hours of constant involvement.
~~You realize that you’re getting used to showering by cup & basin—so thankful for our electric kettle to heat water (when the power is on)! Morning showers (BRR!) call for two!
~~Trees along the road wear makeup during the dry season (the roads are dirt out here in the bush, and the red soil ends up coating the plants!)
~~Your blister count in a month and a half is up to four. (This is simply because I have soft American hands – three came from helping with shelling/slashing at the family I’m connected to.)
~~You catch yourself staring at your reflection in a shop mirror for several seconds…..because it’s the most you’ve seen of yourself in the past week! (we only have a small round hand mirror in our hut…)
~~You’re surrounded by people who love & care about you – and who will check in with you and pray for you. I am so blessed by the intentionality & community here!

~~~~~~~~~~

~~The smallest things make you sweat. Like making your bed. Or sitting on the couch (especially with a computer in your lap). Even a couple hours after dark, with the windows open!
~~You get excited about a car ride, because it might be the one point you get to feel the AC. And when the daily weather is a broken record "hot & sunny" most of the time, that's important. {Rainy season will be here soon, and then the weather will not be as dry/hot.}
~~You have a slight sunburn/fresh tan on your shoulders from a mid-day walk {and a few times of doing laundry} when it's JANUARY, and your new friends from MN & SD are talking about -36 degree weather and huge snow drifts.
~~Your bed time is sometimes determined by what time the Internet decides to quit working. {ie, the night when I copied this off of FB and was going to post it on my blog. Internet quit, so I’m just going to go to bed and do this another time!}
~~You're learning to be thankful for a result when you flip the light switch....because it seems like often as not over the past week, the power has been out. {On Sunday, power went out at about 3:30 and stayed out until Tuesday night. Even the solar-powered battery for the dining hall ran out of juice!}
~~You go to dinner and get "attacked" by an adorable 2-year-old whose smile stands out in his dark face. And where you are greeted by a handshake or hug from nearly every person in the room.
~~When you know, deep down inside, that you are where you're supposed to be. No matter how rough the day has been, no matter how tempting it is to go back to the easier life.
~~When you're learning to pray in and walk by faith. When you're reminded that God didn't bring you here for nothing. That He's got a purpose & a plan, and that He's going to teach you AND use you. No matter what.

{I needed the reminder of those last couple. God is good, ALWAYS :)}

Harvest Time

One of the main dietary staples in central Uganda is posho. It is made from ground maize (similar to cornmeal) and cooked in water to create a stiff mush. We frequently have it for lunch here at the Institute, always with a soup or sauce of some sort to put over it. In the past six weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to witness/help with the gathering of the maize.

Here at Kasana, the children who have been placed in New Hope’s care are part of family groups. A Ugandan father (and often mother) are in charge of each family group, which has between 15 and 20 children. These family groups provide a home for those who come in as orphans, emphasizing NHU’s focus on bringing the Fatherhood of God to the fatherless.

Each family group has land to grow maize and for a garden. The dry season is beginning to come to an end, so the past couple weeks have seen many maize fields harvested and re-plowed for the new crop that will be planted when the rains come. I pitched in on two maize harvesting days, one with Ebenezer family and one with Worcester (pronounced Wooster) family.

Everyone who is a staff member at NHU, and all the Institute students, are placed with one of the family group as “associates.” The family I teach for and I are both part of the Worcester family for while we are here. A couple weeks back, the kids and I went to join the family in harvesting their maize, which is all done by hand. I was proud of how hard the kids worked!

In the maize fields are lots of weeds with tagalong seeds, leaving scores of prickles in one’s clothes. Harvesters grab the ear of maize (which has been allowed dry on the stalk) and pick it off the stalk, either before or after shucking the husks. Then the ear is chucked to one of the growing piles of harvested maize. Sometimes termites have taken down a stalk and eaten out the cob of an ear – but if the maize is still good, it’s still good.

Both times, we started early in the morning. But it warms up quick here, and soon it is hot work. Most stalks only have one ear of maize, and sometimes that ear is tiny and underdeveloped. After retrieving the ear, the stalk is broken down to mark it as completed. The team of harvesters work their way from one end of the field to the other, with at least some degree of regularity. And when you finish, there’s thanks and celebration.

One evening last week, I went over to my family group because the father had told me they often garden at that time. Instead, the mother and the four girls in the family were shelling the corn. Two girls worked a hand-crank shelling machine, while the others shelled by hand. Already they had three big bags of maize kernels as well as a large, ever-growing pile on the floor. I helped shell some by hand, though the mother gave me the easier ears. And I got a big blister on my thumb, even with wearing work gloves!

Now there are four big bags of maize sitting in the family’s living room/dining room/circular “hut” with a thatched roof but open to the breeze. They are waiting to be taken and ground into meal which the family will eat as posho. I thoroughly enjoyed learning a bit about the harvesting and getting to help out with it :)

Parents, New York, and the LAST Week

Hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since I last posted on here! Lots has happened J

The first weekend this month Dad and Mom came up to see me! They “kidnapped” me for the weekend, and we went camping outside of Asheville, NC. We did a lot of hiking that weekend, mostly to see waterfalls along the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are definitely some gorgeous ones!!!

It was really good to get to spend some time with my parents, and fun to get out and see some of the beauty of western North Carolina! On Friday before we headed out of Boone, I also got to introduce them to some of my co-workers and show them around the department a bit, so that was good too.

I’m not nearly doing that weekend justice….you can look at my Facebook photo album to see my pictures from it, and they have more description of what we did.

The next week (Aug. 5-10) was another adventure. The first two days I was at work, like normal. That Monday night the church small group that my hosts are part of went out together to do miniature golf. It was definitely the craziest putt putt course I’ve ever seen, up a steep hill! I somehow managed to win in our group of four.

On Wednesday, I headed out for my reporting trip to New York. Driving down to Charlotte I experienced thick fog for at least 30 minutes, which made for some tense driving. Then when I got to New York, I picked up my rental car and headed out to find my hotel. Which was also a driving adventure, because my directions were wrong, since the hotel was in an odd place. And it was NY driving, so that made it interesting in and of itself!

A few things I noticed: They evidently don’t believe in turn lanes or having an arrow in the light signal. People definitely use their horns a lot more. And there are just way too many people and cars. But I survived three days of driving there, so I consider that a success!

On Thursday morning I had breakfast with the SP staff and volunteers at their church headquarters. It was fun because the site managers were the same people who had been in Joplin, and the same videographer came out to cover the dedication.

I spent the day interviewing a few volunteers and watching them work on the two houses that were in process there. That evening, the owners of the house that would be dedicated the next day came to the church to be interviewed. It was really neat to get to hear their story, and so good to get to know them.

The next morning, they took the videographer and me out to show us around their little town. They had lots of stories to tell, since the house that Hurricane Sandy destroyed had been owned by their family all their lives.

That afternoon, around 100 people flooded their large yard to celebrate with them the dedication of the first house rebuilt by Samaritan’s Purse since the storm nine months ago. To read more about that, you can check out the article I wrote posted on the SP website!

As in Joplin, I was so blessed by everyone I interacted with. Since it is still early in the rebuild process in New York, I didn’t talk to as many homeowners. But the staff and volunteers again provided wonderful testimony to the work God is doing in and through them.

That Friday evening, after I had fellowshipped with the people at the church for a while, I went down to the beach to go wading in the ocean a bit. I had quite an adventure, as you can read in my previous blog post! God certainly provided J

The next day I guess I felt like I hadn’t had enough adventures, so I decided to drive up into Manhattan a bit to see more of NYC before I left, since I had been away from the main part of the city for most of my trip. Traffic was worse than I expected on a Saturday morning, and before long I was ready to leave the big city behind for a while. Barely made it to the airport in time, but again everything worked out.

Thankfully I had a day and a half to “recover” from my trip before heading back to work again. I was pretty apprehensive about how that Monday would go, because the Monday after my Joplin trip was tough and because the two days before my trip had been rough too. But on Sunday, God did some needed work on my heart, and He really turned my attitude around. You can read more about it on my spiritual blog, starting here.

So thanks to that, instead of being hard Monday was one of the best days. For the first time, I felt completely at peace with where I was. It was a huge blessing and an answer to many people’s prayers!

The next day came a conversation I had been expecting for a while. My supervisors informed me that they had an open position in the communications department, and asked if I would be interested in applying. Long story short, God continued working in my heart that week and the next to give me an increasing sense of peace with pursuing staying on at SP.

The job opening was posted on Friday, and I submitted my application on my last Monday. On my last day (Aug. 23), I had an “interview” with my supervisors. They let me know that they’ve got a couple other candidates they’re looking at, and I let them know that I would definitely love to join the team, if that’s what they think would be a good fit.

Since nothing was finalized yet, I said all my farewells and packed up all my stuff to fly back home the next day. And now I’m kind of just playing the waiting game….waiting to see whether God will open that door, or whether He has something else in store for me. While I’m not excited to just be waiting again, I’m glad to have some time at home. And I know God will continue faithfully leading J

(To read what I wrote for SP about the Joplin trip last month, check out the article here and my blog post for them here.)

Ireland Update 7

This was all nearly a month ago now….but I’m finally sitting down to write about our last week in N. Ireland. I had written about the first two days in the plane coming back, but I lost my tablet that had that on it. So that’s part of what’s been holding me back – I hate writing things a second time. :P

If you want to see pictures from our time in Ireland, almost 500 of my 1,300 pictures are posted on Facebook! Mostly with detailed captions J

Day 21 - Tuesday, June 18

Tuesday was our big sightseeing day. We started off by visiting Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that used to be used by fishermen to get from the mainland to an island. The bridge has planking that is less than two feet wide, with a rope mesh extending maybe another foot or so to either side. The sides of the bridge are intersecting ropes that come up about four feet to the rope handrails. The bridge is over a chasm which is almost 100 feet deep and 65 feet wide. So crossing it was a bit of a stretch for height-sensitive me. But it was totally worth it!

We hung out for quite a while on the island reached by crossing the bridge. Tons of gulls and guillemots were flying around the cliffs of the island, probably trying to get situated for nesting season. Their calls were so loud that I was looking around for a big group of seals! I actually lay down on the grassy top of the island and just watched the birds for a while, so that was fun. Most of us ate our sack lunches as a picnic on the island as well.

Next, we stopped at a coastal town (don’t remember which one…) to do some shopping. Several of us went to a used book store and found some neat old hymnals. I also got an old copy of C.S.Lewis’ book “That Hideous Strength” and a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that looked interesting. Just started reading the latter this morning and am SO glad I got it! I also liked walking around looking at the architecture of the town. At a bakery, I tried a “fifteen tray bake” and liked it! They’re evidently a traditional Irish treat, kind of similar to what many people call magic cookie bars in the States, but with marshmallows and cherries instead of chocolate and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to Giant’s Causeway. It’s this amazing geographical formation on the coast, probably formed by volcanic activity as Ireland separated from Scotland. Basically, it is a VAST structure of thousands of usually hexagonal columns of varying height that fit together like a giant puzzle. You’ll have to look at my pictures or Google it to see what I mean because it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the structure runs from the base of a mountain out into the ocean as a peninsula – and it’s great fun to scramble around on and explore!

After we looked around there for a while, we hiked up the shepherd’s trail to the top of the mountain overlooking the causeway. Part of the trail used switchbacks, but the last part was a steep 162 stairs! We were glad to reach the top. Once we had enjoyed the view, we followed the trail along the ridge back to the visitor center. Everything was so green and pretty, and out on the Giant’s Causeway I loved watching the waves crash onto the pillars of stone J

That evening we were on our own for dinner in one of the coastal towns, so a couple of the other girls and I ended up at a hamburger place actually. The inside was decorated in a ‘50s American style, with a poster cut out of Elvis and such. We were fairly amused J We had the best sweet potato fries I had ever tasted though!

After dinner, we reunited with a couple of the other team members and waited at the meeting place for the rest of the team, including the drivers. They were late and it was chilly…so we ended up crowding seven of us onto one park bench. Folks driving by us were staring and waving…and we ended up watching and laughing at some pigeons that looked like they were wrestling up on a balcony ledge. Once we got back to our youth hostel, one of the gals and I took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. It was a good chance to talk J

Day 22 - Wednesday, June 19

That morning I hustled down the beach for about 30 minutes so I could get back to the place where we had been Monday evening. I climbed up onto one of the island-ish rocks and just enjoyed sitting there with the wind blowing around me and the birds circling and calling. And the sound of the waves crashing. It was wonderful – good time for reflection too.

After breakfast, we got all of our stuff packed and loaded up. We still did some sightseeing around the area before heading out though. First stop was Dunluce Castle, now an old ruins that may date back to the 1300s and was occupied until one day in 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea! According to Ireland’s National Trust website, these ruins may have served as C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for Cair Paravel!  We had fun going a little ways into a cave/tunnel right under the cliffs the castle ruins are on. We didn’t go into the castle itself, because we would have had to pay. But we had fun climbing on the rocks around it!

Our next stop was at the small town of Ballintoy. Looked into a pretty church there, then went down, down the hillside to the coast where we scrambled around on more rocky outcroppings. Then back to the van for sack lunches and time to bid farewell to the beautiful Irish North Coast. After driving a couple hours, we stopped at Glenariff Forest Park to go hiking, but sadly the main attraction—a hike to a beautiful waterfall—was closed because of winter storm damage. We still hiked around though.

We had planned to go to a lighthouse near Belfast, but traffic delayed us too much. So we ended up eating at a tiny restaurant in Belfast that had an interesting mixed menu of pizza/Italian and Chinese/Asian food. It was delicious though! And then it was back to the home sweet home of our cottages…at least for a couple more days.

Day 23 - Thursday, June 20

The next day we literally had nothing planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the only day that happened on the whole trip! It was wonderful. We just hung out, played games, relaxed, etc.

That evening after dinner I went out to the observation deck on my own. I had a lot to think about. The trip was fast coming to an end, and with it my time at JBU was truly concluding. I’d known for a long time that I would cry about graduating and having to say goodbye to that place and everything it had meant to me for four years at some point. I expected it to happen in May, but it didn’t. It happened that night in Ireland instead. God was really gracious through that, reminding me of some important things. Later, one of the gals and I took a walk up Joe’s mountain and just talked about stuff – so that was good and helped me process things some more.

Day 24 - Friday, June 21

Spent a good part of the day in Belfast. A couple of us went to the Titanic museum together. The ship was built in Belfast, and the museum is located near the area where the gigantic ship was created and first put off into the ocean. It has an interestingly broad range of topics, clear from the early industrial history of Belfast all the way through the science of deep sea exploration. So it has relatively little on the crash of the Titanic, and more on the ship’s complete story from beginning to end. Quite interesting!

Once we got back into the Belfast city center, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the lawn of the city hall. Then we went together to go shopping at Primark, Ireland’s version of a department store similar to Macy’s. I wasn’t in a shopping mood though, and felt very out of place in the crowded store. So I meandered my way back to a coffee shop. Watched some street performers on the way, and just spent some time writing the previous Ireland Update and a few post cards.

When it came time to meet up with the rest of the team to ride the city bus back to Lakeside Manor, where we had parked our van, I was in full-fledged shut down mode. I’m still not sure completely why. In a way I guess it was culture shock. I just felt very very out of my element. After being in small towns for three weeks and almost exclusively with our small team, to suddenly be in the big city surrounded by hundreds of people really put me on edge for some reason. It’s not like I don’t know how to function in cities….spent my whole life until college in Dallas, and lived in D.C. for two months last summer without ever having that feeling. But that’s what happened. I just had to crawl in my shell for a while. Once we had ridden the bus out of the city center into the more residential area, I started doing fine again. It was pretty odd.

Day 25 - Saturday, June 22

Another very chill day – lots of playing table games and such. That evening, the owners of the cottages where we stayed hosted a BBQ for a ton of their friends. They invited our team too, so we went over for a while. Got to talk to an Irish gal and hear about what God is doing in her life – it was really good! It rained some during the evening, and we saw a *gorgeous* double rainbow that went all the way across. It was so very pretty!

Later, all of the main people we had worked with in Killyleagh – Wally, Heather, Samantha, Sam and Craig – came over for one last time. We just had a great time hanging out, including a dance party for most people. But then we had to say goodbye to our Killyleagh teammates L

Day 26 - Sunday, June 23

Went back into Belfast for a day of seeing C.S. Lewis related sites. We started by attending a service at St. Mark’s Church, which has a number of Lewis connections:

• ·         Jack’s grandfather was the pastor of the church during Jack’s childhood
• ·         Jack’s parents were married in the church
• ·         The baptismal font where Warren and Jack were both baptized as babies is in the back
• ·         The pulpit is the same one which Jack would have watched his grandfather preach in
• ·         On the door of the parsonage is a doorknob with a lion’s head
• ·         One of the stained glass windows was given to the church by Warren and Jack later in life in memory of their parents

It was SUCH a beautiful church – just loved it! After the service, a guy who goes there gave us the C.S. Lewis tour of the church, during which he explained all of the above. He also pointed out various things about the symbolism of the church. I enjoyed it all J

We also stopped by the house where Jack and Warren lived as children – Little Lea. We couldn’t go in, because it is now privately owned…but it was still neat to see. Our last Lewis stop was at the statue of The Searcher, commissioned in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Lewis’ birth. It shows a man looking into a wardrobe, and on the back of the wardrobe there is a copy of a letter Lewis wrote to a young lady asking about the Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia.

After that, we went to St. George’s Market in Belfast, which is basically a large building with a whole collection of vendor booths – everything from food to vintage stuff to handmade items. It was fun wandering around it J

That evening was our last one together as a whole team. So the leaders took the time to get each of us a coke bottle with a Gaelic name on it and make up a definition for the names that had something to do with what each one of us had contributed to the team. It was a time of lots of laughter, but also of encouragement. Sam came back for one last time, and a few of us ended up staying up until 4 a.m. because going to bed meant saying goodbye to Sam. We watched the sky turn light, since the sun comes up super early there.

Day 27 - Monday, June 24

The next day we spent the morning cleaning the cottages and packing up all of the JBU equipment that gets stored at Lakeside Manor during the year. It went by super fast, so that was nice. I also got my own stuff packed up. Before lunch we took one last hike up Joe’s Mountain to bid it farewell.

After lunch we went to Castleward, the former manor home of a rich family. They turned it over to the National Trust fund when they were too in debt to pay their taxes, or something like that. Now it’s basically a museum. It has lots of interesting architecture and artifacts. After getting a really great tour of the house, we walked around on the property for a while, and found some really fat pigs in the farm near the lough.

That evening we went back to Strangford for a final team dinner at a nice restaurant, the Cuan. After we finished, we went to Asda to buy any foodstuff we wanted to take home. Then it was time for our team to say goodbye to three of our members, who had to go to Belfast because they were on different flights out of Ireland.

Day 28 - Tuesday, June 25

We got up early that morning to finish up last minute things at the cottages and depart for Belfast. It was a long day of traveling. We flew from Belfast to Newark to Houston to XNA, the regional airport in northwest Arkansas. In Newark things got really stressful and crazy. Long story short, our layover was too short for everything we had to do, and half of our team didn’t make it onto the flight to Houston. I did, but in the process I accidentally left my backpack behind, and it’s still lost. We were worried that the other half of the team wasn’t going to make it to Houston in time to catch the flight to XNA – but amazingly they made it just in time. We were all so relieved when we saw them get on our little three-seat-across plane to go up to XNA. Then once we landed in XNA it was really time to say goodbye.

The End.

My parents had come up to Siloam Springs to pick me up. We stayed in our tent that night at the Arkansas welcome center, though I didn’t sleep very well. Lots on my mind, plus jetlag. The next day the three of us spent the day at Natural Falls State Park. That was fun. I got to show them a few of the places where I enjoyed spending time during my day-long excursions out there on my own. Then we drove back down to Dallas, back home. But as much as that will always be home, I have a lot of places now that feel like home. And I miss the places and the people that make each so special. But that’s what life is….moving on, saying goodbye, but holding tight to the memories and the lessons.

Speaking of lessons….if you want to read about what I learned over in Ireland, in a spiritual/reflective sense, check it out here. Thank you to each and every person who partnered with me in this trip through prayer and through financial giving! I couldn’t have done it without you.